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Fungi Kwaramba

Political Editor

NELSON Chamisa, leader of the opposition party, CCC, is an interesting character in that he has a way of indicating left, and yet turning right. 

Believing that he has that charm, which blindingly strikes his legion of fans who, seeing that they are hard of discernment, he leads them to doom.

You see, history is the best teacher – it never forgets. 

Ideological grounding has never been the opposition MDC party’s strong point since the days of its formation in 1999.

CCC, which sloughed from it, purporting to be new, remains an appendage of the West. 

Well, it has never been in support of anything that has a semblance of reversing the inequalities occasioned on the people of Zimbabwe by colonialism.

It is surprising, yet not so surprising that recent events, situating Chamisa, Job Sikhala and one Stephen Chan in the opposition conundrum point to a deeper quagmire in which CCC has enmeshed itself and wishes to take everyone else along.

The pied piper

Legend has it that in a German town of Hameln in 1284, the residents, after suffering torment from vermin in the form of rats and mice, had at their gates an unexpected visitor in a coat of many colours.

On account of his multi-coloured coat, they called him the Pied Piper.

Claiming to be a rat-catcher, he offered to drive the plague away, for a fee. 

Extracting a promise to pay from the residents, he drew a fife from his pocket and skilfully played it, whereupon the hypnotised rodents left their crevices and submissively followed him to their doom.

However, the residents refused to pay. And, in revenge the Pied Piper, in the most demonic way, returned on June 26, 1284, to lure the children of Hameln with the magic of his flute. 

Fascinated by the Pied Piper’s fife, about 130 boys and girls of the town followed him to their doom at a place named Calvary or Koppen. 

Thus, history recorded one of the most heinous acts of trickery.

Just like that, the town was beholden by this masterful, yet sleazy charmer, who supposedly could drive the demons as well as summon the angels.

Now, Zimbabwe seems to have been revisited by this crooked enchanter in the form of Nelson Chamisa of CCC. 

He is full of promises; he promises the moon even. 

Sadly, there is no basis for these castles fashioned in and out of the air. One only has to go beyond the later day Pied Piper, and analyse him in the context of the enduring proverb: “He who pays the piper calls the tune”.

A bit of context

After seeing land being repossessed during the fast-track Land Reform at the turn of the millennium, western powers, to browbeat Zimbabwe, particularly the Zanu PF Government into reversing the tide, that was spearheaded by the Svosve people came up with a motley arsenal, that included, but was not limited to the imposition of sanctions – unilaterally drafted in their capitals – to make Zimbabwe’s economy scream, to use the infamous.

See, sanctions were imposed at the instigation of the MDC, and the opposition leading lights, or is it shadows, were instrumental in its drafting, names of David Coltart and Tendai Biti feature prominently, and so does that of Chamisa, who last week timidly tweeted, after being cornered that the sanctions should go.

Yet as time has revealed, that was a gambit, a ruse to hoodwink voters who are now the wiser after enduring sanctions for over two decades. 

It is trite that Chamisa, along with his acolytes, have never seriously condemned sanctions and his attempts to condemn them on Twitter should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve simply because he knows the Western capitals’ corridors and the doors he should knock for an audience on a subject he is an author and tries to be an actor in.

No honour in Chamisa’s party and among thieves

There is a belief that if Zimbabweans suffer, then the Zanu PF Government will be kicked out and a puppet regime will be installed in Harare, yet that still beggars’ belief because, as earlier alluded, Zimbabweans have come of age and know their liberators and tormentors. 

They know those who disown Twitter handles like Fadzayi Mahere, the spokesperson of the structure-less party, and they know instigators of violence like the boisterous Job Sikhala. Abroad they seek to appear as angels, but when inside the country’s borders they lord over violence, often causing harm to brand Zimbabwe and even innocent citizens.

It was never about 

citizens, but Britons

When Chamisa, with the unflattering moniker “cobra”, sought to break from the past after some painful law lessons at the hands of Douglas Mwonzora, he hastily formed the new party, and many, especially erstwhile Zanu PF members cheered him on.

It was only a master stroke so they reasoned, but as it were, it turned to be a briefcase party with no ground norm, the constitution which sets out the roles, form, and structures of a political party.

Many cried hoarse, agitating for Chamisa to come up with structures and prove to the world, citizens in particular, that he was leading an organisation capable of challenging Zanu PF in next year general elections, but that again turned out to be a non-believer’s journey as time, ever the exposer, proved them wrong.

Citizens were supposed to be at the heart and soul of the CCC, the opposition party that seeks to govern albeit with no structures, no constitution, and indeed no moral compass, in a country that has all those aplenty, and which has a ruling party that painstakingly sticks to its constitution, having dispensed with the youth league and women’s league conference and now preparing for an elective congress in October.

Yet, the so-called “president in waiting”, not opposition in waiting, denies the citizens one moment to decide, determine and direct the way forward for the party, and many a sympathisers now lose faith, as they fall prey to the cultists who monkey see evil, hear no evil and speak no evil, except when the words fly from the lips of a Western agent, dispatched by his handlers to, as someone quipped, dipstick and assess the political temperatures ahead of next year plebiscite.

Chan, not Jackie Chan

So the country had a guest in the form of Stephen Chan a professor of World Politics at London University, and ostensibly an expert in African affairs, Zimbabwe, the obsession of Western capitals of course featuring larger during his odyssey to the continent.

“Certainly the West NEEDS to know WHO is in the front bench of what should be projected as a government-in-waiting, with whom in each specialist portfolio, e.g. health, education, justice, agriculture, industry, finance, foreign affairs & defence will the West be dealing? So is it a GOVERNMENT-in-waiting, or simply a President-in-waiting”, Chan instructed Chamisa during his visit to Zimbabwe.

It was certainly not the martial arts comic actor Jackie Chan, but the result was almost comical as Chamisa, like the puppet, he obliged, rather pathetically, to the master’s command to form structures, or rather a semblance of such. 

This was never to satiate the expectations of the citizens, who are certainly not in it, but the puppeteers ensconced in Western capitals, who now have assembled a legal team to ostensibly represent Sikhala, but really, as would any master when the puppet is under the cosh.

Although Chamisa, typical style sought to save face by renouncing his kitchen cabinet announcement, Chan was not to be distracted or rather to relinquish his prize after travelling all the way from Britain to achieve just that, triumphantly declaring:

“He (Chamisa) needs to take the plunge and just say it. This is a shadow cabinet in all, but name. And the members are the names with which foreign governments would wish to liaise in the event of a CCC victory. The outside world wants some certainty about such things”.

The sobering reality 

from the First Citizen

Speaking at the burial of the late national hero Cde Chidawu, President Mnangagwa read the riot act, telling not only the puppeteers, but the puppets too, that no form of machinations, sharp or blunt, devious or sheathed with undo the country’s independence, no matter the drama yarned by merchants of violence.

“Zimbabwe continues to face attacks by our perennial detractors,” he said. 

“However, we will never give in to their machinations and heinous quest to establish a puppet regime in our country. 

“No matter the suffering they may try to inflict on our people, our Independence is not for sale; our freedom is not for sale; our sovereignty is not for sale; our democracy, patriotism, and dignity, as well as institutions and heritage, are not for sale! Let those with ears, hear us loud and clear. We are a peaceful and united country.” 

There is nothing to add to what the President said, apart from repeating his words – let those with ears hear loud and clear.